


The Flash

by yellow_sunrise



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-09 02:26:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16441244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yellow_sunrise/pseuds/yellow_sunrise
Summary: He knew this day would come, he just wanted more time.





	The Flash

**Author's Note:**

> My finger slipped

He’d been running for what felt like ages. He was the only one fast enough to keep up the pace and keep the machine from pulling all the earths together and causing them all to destroy each other. They’d all done their best to stop it from activating, Kara had even given her life to stop it, but it hadn’t worked. So Barry ran. His heart was pounding so fast that it sounded like a constant hum in the back of his mind, the only thing reminding him that he wasn’t dead yet, so he had to keep  _ going _ . If he stopped...if he stopped it’d be the end of all things.

 

But even the Flash got tired, even the Flash needed rest. His legs were weak and Barry felt his suit burning up from the stress and friction. He’d never run so fast for so long! He would be impressed if it wasn’t also killing him. Even the bubble of speed force around him didn’t keep him from feeling his skin drying out, heating and slowly burning as he ran passed his body’s limits.

 

“Barry? Can you hear me Barry?”

 

Iris.

 

_ Iris. _

 

Barry’s eyes closed as tears filled his eyes. The tears burned up as they ran down his face, but at least he could hear her voice before he left. The only thing he’d want more would be to hear his kids call his name one more time...God, he was going to leave her to raise them all alone.

 

“I don’t know if you can hear me, or if you’re going too fast but Barry, I understand why you have to do this. I wish I could tell you I’ll be brave but I don’t want to live without you!” she said, her voice cracking. Barry tried to speak but the breath was stolen from him. He was moving too fast to take in air. He was slowly suffocating, but the worst part is that Barry couldn’t say his goodbyes.

 

“I’m sorry I can’t be braver Barry, but I’m so proud of you Barry Allen. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love y--”

 

Barry felt his eyelids burn away, his limbs turning to ash as he aged. He was on his last leg now.

 

_ Just a little more _

 

He could see that the machine was slowing down, he just needed to outlast it.

 

And so the Flash ran until his body wore away, leaving his family and legacy behind.

 

Barry knew immediately when he died because running no longer hurt him. He was running in darkness, surrounded by flickering lightning of all colors. It was almost like a storm, except it was like the moment before it started. 

 

The speed force. He really  _ was _ dead.

 

Instead of meeting with a form of his mother or father like he expected, Barry was all alone running in the vast nothingness. God he missed Iris, the twins, his  _ life _ .

 

But he didn’t really see the point in stopping. He would just keep going.

 

But a strange thing happened, being one with the speed force and running. He was seeing what happened  _ after  _ he died. He saw as Iris wailed in her grief, unable to reach out and comfort her. He watched her go home to their babies and bury her face in their soft curls, her eyelashes still wet. He watched the twins grow up, watched Iris honor Barry as her husband and hero and the Flash also, still keeping his secret in his death. Watched as she started the Flash museum, and became an editor of her own paper. But he saw her never love again, watched her get frustrated with her lack of understanding of speedster powers to raise the kids. But Barry couldn’t bear to watch them without being near them. So he went backwards. Watched the twins’ birth on a loop until he finally decided to keep going. 

 

The vow renewal, and the night following.

 

Then he got to the part where Iris drifted through life without him. It reminded him too much of the future. But something changed. Rather than running alongside time in the speed force, Barry  _ punched _ through the speed force only to find himself hurtling over the Central City sky. He was aware of his surroundings and saw that he was back to that night, _ the night. _

 

And it hit him with perfect clarity.  _ He was the lightning bolt _ . If Barry stayed the course, he would strike himself and set a young Barry Allen on the path to be the flash. Set his mother’s death in stone and his own death would be solidified.

 

For one frightening moment, Barry considered it. But he would have to hit someone else, and who’s to say that they would make the right choices? That they could do what they must? And there was a part of Barry that knew he would always be  _ the Flash. _

 

So, Barry became the Flash again, and set his life in motion.

 

He went into the speed force once more, only this time he ran  _ forward. _ Maybe it  _ wasn't  _ the end of the Flash.

 


End file.
